Movie Review: Ben-Hur (1959)

Ben-Hur (1959) directed by William Wyler

Prince of Israel Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) is the richest man in Jerusalem. His boyhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd) returns to Jerusalem after rising through the ranks of the Roman army. The year is AD 26. The Jews are a difficult lot for the Romans to govern. They are oppressed by the Pax Romana and await their messiah. Messala reconnects with Judah, but it turns out he wants more than to catch up with an old friend. He wants Judah to tell him all the potential insurrectionists that he knows. Judah is an upright man and refuses to name names, losing the friendship. When the new Roman governor marches into the city, Judah watches from the roof of his home along with his sister and mother. The roof tiles are loose and one smashes right in front of the governor's horse. He is badly injured, leading the Romans to arrest Judah and his family. Messala sees this as an opportunity to show how ruthlessly he will enforce the law--if he banishes his old friend to the galleys as a rower and tosses the sister and mother in jail without hope of release, the rest of the people will think twice before defying Rome. Rome is the world and the future, after all. Judah swears revenge but who ever survives as a galley slave?

The movie is a classic epic that I remember watching yearly as a child (back before VCRs and DVDs and streaming, we had to wait till a movie came on TV to watch it!). It holds up quite well after almost sixty years. Some moments are a little cheesy but the action sequences are amazing and the story of revenge and family love is still as affecting as ever.

The story is framed by the birth and death of Jesus Christ, who is a recurring character. Judah's hatred of Rome and Messala are a stark contrast to the faith other characters gain in Jesus and His message. While the movie's statement that Jesus's way is better than the path of vengeance is profound, the message is not delivered subtly. Which is okay, because the message is important and it makes a satisfying conclusion to the movie.

Of course, the good folks at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast have commented on the movie--check out their take here.

The studios must have thought it would be a goldmine that could be remined. The new version is directed by the guy who did Night Watch and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, so he has some practice with big action. The trailer promises lots of spectacle:



The trailer also seems to show the whole movie. Maybe the makers assume that people have already seen the 1959 version and want to reassure them that this is no hatchet job like Noah or Exodus: Gods and Kings. I am interested but will probably wait till DVD.

Movie Review: Day Watch (2006)

Day Watch (2006) co-written and directed by Timur Bekmambetov

After the tough ending of the last film, Light Other Anton Gorodetsky is back in emotional doldrums. He has been partnered with Svetlana to train her in Night Watch duties and abilities. She flirts with him but he's too grumpy and self-absorbed. They are called to investigate a Dark Other who is attacking an old lady in public. On the scene, Anton recognizes the boy as his son, who has joined the Dark Others because he thinks his dad wanted to kill him in his mother's womb (it's complicated, see the first movie). Naturally he wants to protect his son from harm, but the son is very powerful and could trigger the end of the world. The Others have the ability to go into the Gloom, a sort of alternate dimension of human reality. There is a sub-level of the Gloom that only the most powerful Others can enter. The son flees there and Svetlana follows. Anton can't go there, so she is clearly more powerful (she almost triggered the end of the world in the last movie). The boy escapes and tension mounts as Anton tries to cover his son's tracks and avoid a murder rap for a Dark Other who has mysteriously died.

One possible tool Anton could use is the Chalk of Fate, which allows the user to go back in time and do things differently. The movie opens with a scene in ancient Asia where a guy named Tamerline breaks into the fortress protecting the Chalk and steals it. He eventually dies and legend has it the Chalk is buried with him in his tomb. Can Anton sneak off to Samarkand and save his own family, if not the whole world?

The movie has a lot of story elements woven into it and not all are fully developed. At one point the Inquisitors show up. They are a group of people who keep the treaty between the Dark and Light Others, which is fully explained in the books but comes out of left field in this movie (they were not mentioned in the first film and it seemed that the Dark and Light were enforcing the treaty on each other). Other parts of the storytelling are choppy as well. The ending is satisfying morally but does feel like a cheat narratively.

The special effects are amazing but not as inventive as in the first film. The scale is much larger and more things happen in the real world, less in the Gloom. The highly stylized subtitles of the first film are gone, though I'd say that was because the first film didn't do well at the American box office so they put less effort into subtitling the sequel. It's a shame because the subtitling added to the mystique of their world.

If you liked the first film, definitely watch this one to see the end of the story. But this film doesn't really stand on its own and is not as good as the first film.

Movie Review: Night Watch (2004)

Night Watch (2004) co-written and directed by Timur Bekmambetov

In modern-day Moscow, Anton goes to an old crone with magical powers to get his girlfriend back. She agrees to help him but tells him his girlfriend is pregnant with the other guy's baby. She can make the woman come back to him but that requires killing the baby. Anton needs to take the moral responsibility on himself--he has to choose deliberately to commit this sin. He skeptically agrees and she begins concocting a potion. He drinks it and then she has to clap her hands to kill the baby. At the last minute, he changes his mind. Before he can stop her, she seems to be possessed. Something is preventing her from clapping. As the potion disorients Anton, he can see some other people in the apartment manhandling the witch. They subdue her and then start filling out paperwork on her illegal use of magic. Anton asks them what is going on. They realize he can see them and that he is an Other.

The Others are a special minority of the population that have mystical abilities. Some are vampires, others shapeshifters, still others clairvoyants. These Others have existed for centuries and the good Light Others have been at war with the evil Dark Others. In medieval times, the two sides had a large but indecisive battle. The two leaders (Geser for the Light and Zavulon for the Dark) make a truce where they will regulate each others' action, especially when dealing with regular mortals. The Light Others form the Night Watch to keep an eye on the activities of the Dark Others. The Day Watch is made of Dark Others who police the activities of the Light Others. The truce has been a precarious balance that risks falling into a world-ending conflict.

Anton decides to be a Light Other and joins the Night Watch (Others always have a choice to be good or evil and must explicitly choose which side they will be on). He becomes a field agent but is not very good. His current assignment is to follow a young boy who is being lured by Dark vampires. As he goes along, he spots a young women who has a special curse that may trigger the world-ending conflict. Geser wants to maintain the status quo but Zavulon schemes to get the boy and maybe end the world.

The movie is a Russian production with a highly-stylized, slick, dystopian look (or maybe it's just post-Soviet grunge). The visuals are inventive. Even the subtitles are crafted to enhance the storytelling. When the Dark vampires call the boy, the hypnotic voice has red subtitles that wash in and out like red mist or blood in water. The movie is impressive just for watching.

The story is also well told. The Night Watch, even though they are the side of light and good, have questionable methods and plenty of flaws. Anton is a mess and slowly gets his act together through the film, though not enough for a very happy ending. Doing the right thing is never easy and making up for past mistakes is a greater challenge than any characters can anticipate. The movie has some nice ethical complexity to go along with the production values.